Larry Wilk calls himself a lifelong student, which is the same lifestyle he wishes to teach during his tenure at the University of California, Irvine.
“I try to learn something new every day,” he told the Business Journal.
Wilk, a continuing lecturer at UCI’s Paul Merage School of Business, started at a consulting firm before finding his niche at Walt Disney Co. where a 10-week internship turned into a 26-year career.
When asked about his teaching journey, Wilk pointed to where his passion for learning began—the first computer class he took as a Los Angeles high school senior. He quickly picked up the technology and by the time he got to college, Wilk was offering to write educational computer programs for his fellow students.
“I ended up being a TA for nine different classes in college, and we started a consulting company with another professor doing internal projects for the school,” Wilk said. “My point is, I started teaching way back then.”
He went straight into consulting after school at Arthur Andersen, now known as Accenture, helping retail companies digitize and install operational systems like inventory. After eight years at the firm, he sought a more creative outlet.
After getting his MBA, he set his sights on Disney.
After being turned down several times for a full-time position, Wilk was hired as an intern in 1987 to write up a business plan for the expansion of Disney Stores. He permanently joined the four-person team that launched the first 100 stores across the U.S.
He was later asked to expand Disney Stores to Japan, often teaching and training others how to deliver Disney-level customer service. Ultimately, Wilk was responsible for developing the business plans that opened stores in Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, the U.K. and France.
Afterward, he followed his boss to work at Disneyland Resort and ended up on the development team of California Adventure. Wilk was then sent to open another Disneyland in Hong Kong from 2001 to 2006.
The next year, Wilk transitioned to Walt Disney Studios where he worked on launching international offices of the home entertainment division involving DVD, Blu-Ray, digital download and eventually streaming services.
It was around this time that Wilk was invited to be a guest speaker at different schools such as Pepperdine University and UCLA.
In 2013, Wilk retired from Disney but acknowledged he couldn’t sit still.
He was first asked to teach at Pepperdine, then he moved on to the communications school at California State University, Fullerton, after working with a colleague to develop courses around the business of film and television. It was one of his wife Kathy’s MBA professors at UCI who recommended that he join the Beall Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UCI.
While on the board, Wilk met the dean of the Merage business school, who invited him to start a class at UCI.
Wilk pitched launching a class on media and entertainment and another about corporate entrepreneurship, which he started teaching in 2016.
Since then, Wilk has taught six different courses at the Merage School, including Merage Consulting Projects, Business Creation and EDGE: Innovation in the New Digital Age. A recent class he launched in 2023, Into the Metaverse, took shape when Meta wanted to do research on how its Quest VR headsets could be used for education .
“When I was at Disney, one of my roles was when a new technology comes out, to figure it out.”
He now teaches students how to be that invaluable “go-to person” at a company and is grateful for the opportunity.
“I had a magical career, and I have kind of a second magical career,” Wilk said. “Our goal is to build up Orange County and find careers for our students, but I (also) enjoy working with our faculty members to achieve that.”
